Storage containers for mounting in the bed of a pickup truck have been in existence for many years. These containers are most popular with workmen who desire ready and secure access to tools and materials. These containers are varied in design but are almost always mounted in the front of a pickup truck bed directly behind the cab. One typical version of these containers has dual access doors, which comprise the top surface of the container. The doors are left-right opposed and rotate from a level position, when closed, to an acute angled orientation relative to the top of the container, when open. U.S. Design No. 294,816, issued to Hoyt, is illustrative of this type of pickup bed mounted storage container. While utilitarian in many ways, this type of storage container forces the to extend his arm and shoulder considerably in order to reach over the pickup bed rails and access the storage container contents. This over-reaching motion can cause injury to the arm and shoulder joints as well as the lower back of the user. Additionally, the user cannot easily see into the depths of this type of container in order to access a desired tool or other object. In many cases the user jumps into and out of the pick-up bed to access tools located in the toolbox, which can lead to worker injuries, such as twisted ankles or even broken legs.
Another option has been to employ a pickup truck bed cap which is essentially a large container situated between the bed rails and fastened to the bed deck or even to the truck frame. Exemplary bed cap containers can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,346 issued to Berlin and U.S. Pat. No. 6,244,651 issued to Hecock, Jr. These containers suffer from the drawback that their access doors, being positioned in the rear of the container, can only be reached by the user first climbing into the pickup bed, which, as noted above, is a wholly impractical and potentially injurious method of access for the average workman.
The storage containers cited thus far also suffer from the drawback that their placement in the bed significantly reduces the amount of bed length and volume which can be used to transport lengthy materials such as 4×8 plywood sheets and 8-foot 2×4's. The only options available with these prior art containers is to transport lengthy materials with the tailgate down, or else position the materials at downward angle in the bed with the protruding ends of these materials located upon the top of the closed tailgate. The tailgate “down” option presents the possibility of the materials being ejected during acceleration, which can present road safety issues as well as the loss of expensive materials. The tailgate “up” option makes it difficult to unload heavy materials positioned at an angle in the bed, and also makes it difficult to transport other tools or objects, which invariably will roll forward upon the angled surface.
The storage container disclosed in U.S. Utility Pat. No. 5,316,358 issued to Payne, et al., offers a better solution, in that it presents a storage container mounted between the bed and cab and having gull wing access doors. The lower part of the access doors present a surface that orients flush with the pickup bed and cab sides, when the door is in its closed position. This gull wing design allows considerable ergonomic access and an easy view into the contents of the container by the user. However this container requires that the pickup bed be mounted behind it, which to maintain a standard pickup length would mean that the bed would have to be made considerably shorter than standard beds, thus again limiting the size of cargo that could be carried on the deck of the pickup bed.
Therefore a need exists for a pickup mounted storage container which has a large storage capacity and which can be ergonomically accessed by the user. Also, a need exists for a pickup bed mounted storage container which is arranged to allow for the entire length of a pickup bed to remain available for transporting large materials, such as plywood sheets and long 2×4 planks.
The foregoing reflects the state of the art of which the inventor is aware, and is tendered with a view toward discharging the inventor's acknowledged duty of candor, which may be pertinent to the patentability of the present invention. It is respectfully stipulated, however, that the foregoing discussion does not teach or render obvious, singly or when considered in combination, the inventor's claimed invention.